June Jamaica Update

JUNE UPDATE

Everything has changed, but we just don’t know how. After our recent ordeal with Daisha, we have had a difficult time processing through all of the thoughts, emotions, and realities of our experience. We are coming to grips newly discovered blessings in our lives. One of these blessings is the fact that we don't have experience in dealing with "life and death" situations, which is evidence of a hedge of blessing around our lives. Many of you reading this have a much better understanding of these issues as the Lord has carried you through “life and death” situations in your lives. Because of this, I wanted to make this update a plea for your help rather than an explanation of “all we have learned” through our experience. For reasons far beyond our understanding, our “life and death” situation resulted in life while we have friends who recently had a situation that resulted in death. While I am sure there are not answers for this life, we do know that growth comes through struggle and we do not want to waste the struggle. Maybe more than anything else, we are trying to reconcile the reality that life is “life and death.” How do we walk through our daily life with the understanding that we are not promised anything nor owed anything? We know that Christ is the powerful reconciliation between the seriousness of “life is life and death,” and the joy we have in the journey, but how do we keep the understanding effectual through everyday moments. Thanks in advance for your help.

Monday was Daisha’s 3-week birthday! While we had other things going on in June, the rest has become a blur. We did enjoy two teams at Knockpatrick before Daisha was born. We were with a 3rd team on the Sunday that Keri went into the hospital. But, as we neared our date to fly, our focus was switching from life in Jamaica to our transition to the states. We obviously never flew on our intended date, but all of the preparation for the transition never went to waste as we ended up in Illinois anyway. Wow, what an inconceivable path that was forged in spite of the hours of thought and planning we did to come up with a schedule that would be “best.”

Our family continues to be in “blessed shock.” We are often speechless as we recount our blessings. Drew and Truitt are doing great. They continue to remain flexible. Their lives continue to be marked by transition, which means that they are always eating at a different table, sleeping on a different piece of carpet, and playing with new toys. Keri remains strong in spite of limited sleep and we continue to marvel at her recovery from delivery and a stressful week at the hospital. Daisha has exceeded her birth weight and continues to grow/develop. Kirk is along for the ride and trying make sense out of it all. We rejoice.

The plan for our remaining time in the states is to take full advantage of the opportunities. We hope this means lots of family time, friends time, and preparation time for our return. Our return date will be dependent on Daisha’s continued positive growth as well as her paperwork. She left Jamaica without a passport and we will need to get a passport before we return. We are currently waiting on her birth certificate so that we can start the passport application. So, our best guess is a return trip sometime in August. In the meantime, we would love to see and fellowship with many of you who we have not seen for a long time. Please send us an email or give us a call as we would love to catch up with you if Daisha and our schedule allows. We rejoice in God’s faithfulness and pray that we can understand and use this experience as He intended. We ultimately know the experience was for His glory and pray that we can maximize the glory due His name.

Love,
Kirk, Keri, Drew, Truitt, and Daisha